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County expects Stenson retrial to near $900,000

November 20th, 2013 - 5:28am

(Port Angeles) – Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones told the Port Angeles Business Association Tuesday morning the county has good
news fiscally. But a larger chunk of bad news to more than offset it.

“We're projecting about 100-thousand dollar more sales tax revenue, than what we budgeted. It appears to come mostly from the sales taxes on materials for the Highway 101 widening project between Port Angeles and Sequim,” said Jones.

The red ink comes in the form of the cost
of paying for lawyers in the Stenson trial. The trial is over, but
the bills will keep coming in for a while, and they could add up to
$900-thousand dollars.

“We don't have all the bills yet,” said Jones. There still working on the sentencing, probably by the end of the year it will run upwards of $900,000.”

The county paid for the prosecutors, but Stenson had his own set of defense attorney's paid for bu the county. The county has little in setting the cost for public defense.

“It's a negotiation between the judge and the attorneys,” said Jones. “They said 'this is our rate', and the judge approved it.”

Jones says if the local public defenders' office would've been able to take the case, the cost would've been closer to $100,000.